Completing the Cabinet: Friday Update
Returning to the list from last week, but consolidated down to the remaining items
Fit glass stays
Take doors off, remove hinges, uninstall top
Apply finish
Install glass
Reinstall doors and top
Take pictures
Woodworking is a combination of fields. There is of course the wood part, the only wood working this week was to mill and cut the glass stays. The rest was wood adjacent.
But before we jump in, I wanted to share a blog I wrote on Wednesday, Imitation or Inspiration. It’s a worthwhile read for anyone who creates or shares new ideas (which is everyone) as it explores this notion of imitation and how we are always imitating those before us, intentionally or not. But that’s not a bad thing, and I prefer to think of it as drawing inspiration from others and I hope to inspire future furniture makers with my builds.
Tricky to photograph, the glass doors reflect my messy shop. I’ll see what I can do to fix it in editing.
Finishing
Finishing is wood related. When I say finishing it’s the process of applying finish to wood. In this case I used a hard wax oil from Osmo. To me, finishing is it’s own discipline and much closer to painting, sometimes it is painting, than wood working. I’ll do a deep dive on finishes soon, but there are two main types. Penetrating and film. Penetrating finishes soak into the wood and cure, providing water resistance and some protection while being easy to apply (simply rub it on and wait). Film finishes are a coat over the top of the wood, paint falls into this category. Film finishes provide a more durable top coat than penetrating, but are more difficult to apply, especially in a dusty woodshop where particles land in the finish while they dry.
Hard wax oils are a combination product. It’s a penetrating oil combined with wax which provides a top coat making the application as easy as oil but more durable with fewer steps. There are a few options in hard wax oils on the market, but I have only ever used Osmo. The YouTuber preference seems to be Rubio Monocoat, but I can’t get over the price, plus you have to mix it. Osmo is less expensive and pre-mixed making it easy to apply. In some cases I will use two coats, which is recommended for furniture, but also a pain for this particular project so I’m sticking with one, for a couple of reasons.
One, it’s much easier to apply to flat, horizontal surfaces, but when doing vertical faces like on the already built cabinet, it made application annoying. Mostly it dripped, wasting expensive product and making a mess on the ground. Secondly, It looks great as is and since I’m making this piece for me I can easily re-apply in the future if it needs repair.
Final Final Assembly
With the finish dry it was time to put everything back together. I secure the glass with the stays which are held in place with a few tiny nails. The trick here was to pre-drill holes for the nails with the smallest drill bit I had. The last thing I wanted to do was crack a stay and have to re-mill, cut and finish it at this point. I came up with this solution after testing with a pneumatic brad nailer but had adverse results. If you have ever used a nail gun before you know the thin nails tend to bend if they hit a dense spot in the wood, causing the nails to ricochet or even bend into a complete U. If the nail bent and came back it could shatter the glass.
Pre-drilling for nails. Not typical, but on such delicate pieces it’s a necessity. No splitting these stays.
With the doors done, the hinges could be reinstalled. I used these hinges because they come apart making installation easy. The wall part is screwed into place using the previously drilled mounting holes. The cabinet side is inserted in it’s hole and secured with screws, then the door can be clipped in place.
Next up, the top is secured in place using my homemade walnut z-clips. I use some clamps to keep the top in place, then send a screw through the pre-drilled hole keeping the top from shifting.
Lastly, the shelf pins are inserted and shelves put in place.
Fully assembled and ready to be taken apart again to make it lighter to carry inside. Luckily, the hinges unhook and shelves slide out.
Project Complete, Almost
What a project this was. I won’t go into the highs and lows, the lessons and wins, or any other thoughts I have about this build as I have a retrospective coming out next week.
Instead I’ll share the final steps of this project. The business side of things. I built this because my wife and I wanted it for our house, but it’s a business expense because I am using it to promote my skills, and in order to do that I need high quality pictures to show off my work, inspiring clients to reach out and request a cabinet of their own.
My business is not just about making furniture, it’s also influencing. I like to say inspiring, but the general term is influence. I do that on Instagram and YouTube, mainly, but also LinkedIn. Pictures will go up, but also video. I shot many hours of footage, covering the entire build, and edited that down to a fun little build video showing the entire process and sharing some tips along the way. That video is in progress and coming soon to YouTube as well as short snippets to be turned into reels on Instagram.
I have articles to write. A retrospective on the build, but another about process, what steps you, the builder, should take to complete a project.
And how could I forget the most important part of every project. The final clean up. It’s a ritual of mine to do a thorough shop cleanout where I put away tools, empty dust collectors, sweep, organize offcuts into various buckets and lumber racks. With all of the superficial items done, I make sure everything is tied down and I grab the leaf blower, open the garage, and get to blasting, removing all semblance of dust from machines, benches, and walls.
With a clean, fresh start I’m ready for the next big project. I have a few on the docket, so tune in next week to see which one is the winner in the battle for the bench.